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Grade 5

The fifth grade students, take on a leadership role in the Lower School. They set an example for younger students, in their intellectual pursuits as well as in social interactions. They regularly apply diverse perspectives, knowledge, and skills to a variety of contexts, demonstrating understanding while developing new ways of thinking. Students are encouraged to explore their personal passions as they develop grade level appropriate skills. Fifth graders often work in peer groups, tackle multi-step projects, and share their learning with the community. This helps them to be prepared for success in middle school and beyond.

Our Curriculum

Reading

Fifth grade readers decode grade level text fluently and accurately, to deepen their literal and inferential comprehension of reading material, and to develop an enjoyment of literature and nonfiction writing. Some of the key component skills that support these goals include supporting opinions with evidence, engaging with increasingly complex text, understanding differences in genres, and identifying and analyzing stylistic elements. Teaching centers on the strategies of summarizing, visualizing, connecting, inferring, predicting, synthesizing, analyzing, evaluating, and discussing. Students regularly share feelings, observations, questions and impressions of the texts as they read.

Writing

At HIS, our Language program has been tailor-made to give students a thorough grounding in the main fiction and non-fiction text types and purposes for writing. Language units are progressive and guide students through a scaffolded process of reading, analyzing, writing and editing of texts. Each unit is supported by grammar, vocabulary and spelling practice.

Literacy Units in Grade 5

Fifth grade mathematics fosters the development of visual and conceptual models of numbers and operations. The concrete manipulation of objects leads to written mathematics and the use of algorithms, helping students develop a thorough understanding of mathematical reasoning as well as greater computational fluency.

In Grade 5, teaching time focuses on three main areas:

Developing fluency with addition and subtraction of fractions, and developing understanding of the multiplication of fractions and of division of fractions in limited cases (unit fractions divided by whole numbers and whole numbers divided by unit fractions)

Extending division to 2-digit divisors, integrating decimal fractions into the place value system and developing understanding of operations with decimals to hundredths, and developing fluency with whole number and decimal operations

Overall Expectations

Students in Grade 5 will develop their observational skills by using their senses and selected observational tools. They will gather and record observed information in a number of ways, and they will reflect on these findings to identify patterns or connections, make predictions, and test and refine their ideas with increasing accuracy. Students will explore the way objects and phenomena function, identify parts of a system, and gain an understanding of increasingly complex cause and effect relationships. They will examine change over time, and they will recognize that change may be affected by one or more variables. Students will reflect on the impact that the application of science, including advances in technology, has had on themselves, society and the environment. They will be aware of different perspectives and ways of organizing the world, and they will be able to consider how these views and customs may have been formulated. Grade 5 students will examine ethical and social issues in science-related contexts and express their responses appropriately. They will use their learning in science to plan thoughtful and realistic action in order to improve their welfare and that of other living things and the environment. Students will communicate their ideas or provide explanations using their own scientific experience and that of others.

The study of planet Earth and its position in the universe, particularly its relationship with the sun; the natural phenomena and systems that shape the planet and the distinctive features that identify it; the infinite and finite resources of the planet.

Overall Expectations

The students in Grade 5 will recognize different aspects of human society, focusing on themselves and others within their own community as well as groups of people that are distant in time and place. They will extend their understanding of how and why groups are organized within communities, and how participation within groups involves both rights and responsibilities. They will understand the interdependency of systems and their function within local and national communities. Students will gain an appreciation of how cultural groups may vary in their customs and practices but reflect similar purposes. They will deepen their awareness of how people influence, and are influenced by, places in the environment. They will realize the significance of developing a sense of belonging and stewardship towards the environment, valuing and caring for it, in the interests of themselves and future generations. Grade 5 students will consolidate their understanding of time, recognizing how ideas and actions of people in the past have changed the lives of others, and appreciating how the past is recorded and remembered in different ways. They will gain an understanding of how and why people manage resources. They will understand the impact of technological advances on their own lives, on society and on the world, and will reflect on the need to make responsible decisions concerning the use of technologies.

Social Studies Skills

Formulate and ask questions about the past, the future, places and society

Use and analyse evidence from a variety of historical, geographical and societal sources